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NYC Council Speaker: Trump’s plans could cripple economy

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lightning-rod proposals to deport illegal immigrants and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States could cost New York state more than $800 million and New York City more 340,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the New York City Council.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Democrat, is expected to unveil the findings in a speech Wednesday and say that “the city’s economy would shrink because of Donald Trump.”

A copy of Mark-Viverito’s remarks was provided to The Associated Press in advance of her speech.

“While Donald Trump could watch the ruin from high atop his tacky towers, his plans would have a devastating impact on real people, and would do great harm to the economy of our city,” Mark-Viverito is expected to say. “The closer we look, the more it becomes apparent that ‚Äî shockingly ‚Äî a con man and reality TV personality masquerading as a policy maker would drive New York’s economy into a ditch.”

Mark-Viverito, a Hillary Clinton supporter, is expected to unleash her harshest criticism to date of Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in a speech before the Association for a Better New York business group. She will say that Trump’s policies could cost the city more jobs than the 2001 and 2008 recessions, result in “mass deportations that would be a Trump-branded reign of terror” and note that workers in New York City who were born in Muslim-majority countries contribute $14.2 billion annually to the local economy.

“The numbers tell one story: Donald Trump’s racist fear-mongering proposals would hurt New York’s economy,” Mark-Viverito is to say, according to the prepared remarks.

Trump launched his campaign last summer with a speech that accused some immigrants from Mexico of being rapists and bringing drugs into the country while pledging to fortify the nation’s southern border while deporting illegal immigrants. He later vowed to temporarily bar the world’s more than 1.5 billion foreign Muslims from entering the U.S., a position from which he recently backed away.

A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mark-Viverito, one of the nation’s most prominent politicians of Puerto Rican descent, has become an effective surrogate for Clinton, particularly on immigration issues. Her role for Clinton only grew when her counterpart in New York City government, Mayor Bill de Blasio, initially waffled in supporting the former Secretary of State.